just someone random on tumblr

I had a sudden realisation when Susie talks about her experience with piano. This scene is an obvious nod to Susie's experience with learning healing, but... I think there's another, far deeper meaning to this scene.

What Susie experienced with the piano... is actually EXACTLY what happens in that earlier Piano scene when you attempt to solve the puzzle yourself.

If you were to ever to do ANY attempt on the song to unlock the door... Kris makes sure to mess up your notes before you even have a chance to finish. They forbid you from playing. The same exact way Susie was forbidden to play.

And so they had someone else play. Someone better. Kris.

Susie describes her past experience with piano as an attempt to further connect with Kris. But ironically, Kris was the one who was better. The one who basically took over the inexperienced one after they were told they weren't allowed to play.

Kris never let's us get near the piano, and makes sure to always fumble up the notes, "A Concert For You."

Susie's experience isn't a parallel to Kris at all. It's a parallel to the Player.

And we further connect this to the Healing arc with Ralsei. Where Ralsei teaches Susie to heal, but never actually let's her do healing when it's actually needed.

In Ch 4, Kris allows us to play piano, but further prevents us from trying when it's truly needed or when it's something complex.

But this also shows us that not all things are so simple. Kris is someone that truly loves piano, so it makes sense that they don't want someone else in their body to command them to play, for Kris, playing piano is their freedom, and its not something that they want someone else to take.

...Yet at the same time, there's nothing wrong with you wanting to play, even if it sucks. Because maybe, just maybe, it might become someone else's freedom too.

Neither are in the wrong in this matter. Between Susie and the better piano player that took her place, and between the Player and Kris... no one is necessarily wrong here. Things here are a lot more complicated than that.

This isn't the first time where Susie's character is aligning closer to the Player than Kris and Ralsei, with her becoming the one to speak for us for certain things when we're unable to, such as her vocalising the frustration of having people keep secrets not long after Ralsei and Kris kept hiding secrets from the Player.

Also the fact that the Ch 4 extended scene where you struggle against Kris in Dess' closet has Susie accept BOTH Kris and the Player equally rather than preferring one side over the other. She just doesn't realise it's two seperate ppl at once.

Not to mention how the Player and Susie are actively synergizing with each other in the best way possible.

Susie is the only one whose abilities you can directly enhance midbattle. Rude Buster's dmg gets raised by z spam (ch 1 + 2) or z timing (ch 3 + 4). And her healing gets enhanced the more you allow her to heal.

And it just so happens that Gerson' fight is also essentially TRAINING THE PLAYER to use these mechanics. It teaches you the z mechanic to parry. It forces you to let Susie heal to enhance it. It wasn't just training for Susie. It was also training for YOU to learn how to work with Susie as a duo.

Its really funny cause Susie's heal isn't a "Prayer" like other healing spells. And yet, Susie's heal requires a higher being's interference to raise its effectiveness.

If you think abt it, both the Player and Susie are similar in the sense that we're both outsiders to the grand scheme of the narrative, and are both trying to figure out what the heck is even going on in this town. You fought Kris in Ch 4 to help Susie while Kris is working with the Knight.

Even though everything abt Susie should make her clash with us (her ability to override choices, ignore our commands), she's the one who is the most aligned to us in terms of how we feel and experience the events of the story, and she is the one whose dynamic with the Player, has been nothing but purely beneficial to each other.

I didn’t want to get arrested so I just never asked my mom for spaghettis after that. Lesson, learned. Don’t ask mom for spaghettis or she’ll call the damn police on you. 

So I have this memory in my head, and it goes unquestioned until I say it outload for the first time a few months back and as soon as I say the words “When I was six, my mom called the cops on me for asking for spaghettis” My adult logic slams into place and is like “Hang on. Your mother definatly did not call the police on a 6 year old for asking for spaghetti.” 

So obviously that’s not what really went down. I call up my mom to tell her how I remember it and on top of her figuring out why her kid has always been really cagey around spaghettis for the last 3 decades she tells me what really happened. 

So on that night, a man tried to break into our house through the front window. It was just my mom, and her kids so she did what she felt she had too and shot him in the head. He’d been wearing a helmet, which landed on the floor under the window.

Now I just want ya’ll to put yourselves in my moms shoes for a minute here. This woman has just taken a human life. The trauma of that- the instant agony, the panic, the guilt, the fear- all of it hitting her at once, her only solace the knowledge that her children are safe. She protected her daughters. No matter the cost to her soul- her children are safe.

--

Shapiro drowning in Dubois’ EVA suit. Dubois with Shapiro's suit taped to him and her helmet balanced on top of his head

Grace looking at the camera confused while the core time circle around him like the one girl surrounded by five guys meme

Stratt reclined on a couch looking demure with a coffee mug and using Grace's legs as a lap board for her tablet. Grace is dead asleep, obviously snoring with his mouth wide open and covered in reports. His glasses are on Stratt's head.

Carl walking by the camera with Grace thrown over his shoulder. Grace is visibly pleased and yapping.

Illyukhina walking by the camera with Grace thrown over her shoulder. Grace looks vaguely ill.

Yao passionately doing karaoke with each of the core staff members.

Lamai asleep on a prototype coma bed.

Steve Hatch maternity shoot with the Beatles.

Grace and Dimtri using a centrifuge to make butter.

Grace and Dimitri getting yelled at by Lokken for using a centrifuge to make butter.

Dubois carrying Grace and Shapiro under each arm to the cafeteria. They all are talking like this is a normal occurrence.

Yao hanging upside down from a simulator that glitched with a straight face while Illyukhina is crying laughing on the floor below him.

Compilation video of the world's greatest minds dropping tools, tripping, and running into the glass walls.

Videos of the astronauts defeatedly drifting away from the mock ship in the buoyancy tank after losing their grip. The others are dramatically reaching out for them.

Redell teaching the Russians about New Zealand bombing dives in the training pools.

Shapiro, in formal wear, standing next to a slideshow titled “How I Cloned and Replaced the World Leaders”

Dubois - “My Alien Seduction Tactics"

Grace - “Middle Schooler vs Scientist”

Dimitri - “Using the Incorrect Equipment for Correct Results"

Hatch - “Yoko Ono: First Contact?”

Lamai - “How Not to Use a Coma Robot”

Lokken - “Grace is an Idiot”

Leclerc - “The Ice Age and You”

Stratt - “Things I DO NOT Have Time For”

Carl - “Securing a Home Depot for Idiots”

Yao - “Worst Times to Make a Joke”

Illyukhina - "Benefits of Vodka in Space”

Reddell - “What I Did in 1989”

Illyukhina passed out on top of Dmitri (also passed out) surrounded by a minefield of bottles none of which are for alcohol.

Leclerc looking upset and holding a penguin plushy.

I think this ship (spaceship) is really funny

im forever in awe of your formatting for this fic with all the media stuff and i loved the translation boxes, they're such a good idea for eridian / english language barrier things (and also bloodymary language barrier, which i may be trying to write..) specifically how did you get the box to extend the screen Only when the relevant text is being hovered over, then revert back to a fixed position after? and not make the fic awkward to scroll through with it sliding to the extra space on the right unnecessarily?

sincerely, a humble ao3 writer who has no idea how html and coding works <3

Oh, of course! Okay, little HTML code crash course for pop-up text boxes (that work via hovering on pc and via tapping on mobile!)

So! You want to make a little textbox to help clarify details about certain words in your writing. Let's say you want to define a word for your audience. We can do that easily, like in the example below:

And hovering:

The code for this is, thankfully, relatively simple.

If you do not already, create a workskin that you can apply to your fic. Then, into that workskin, you are going to add the following css code (included as text below the 'read more' so you can just copy-paste from there):

For customization:

The underline beneath the word that can be hovered over is colored by 'border-bottom.' If you want to change the color, find the hexcode of the color that you want (just use google's color wheel) and replace #058fff with it.

The background of the textbox is determined by 'background-color' (currently #c5d2f0)

The gradient that I use is determined by 'background: linear-gradient.' The color the gradient starts as comes first (#bff0e3) and the one it ends as comes second (#cbb6fd)

The gradient will always overpower the plain background color, which I have in my code for redundancy. If you do not want a gradient and just want a solid background color, simply remove the gradient line of code.

The color of text within the textbox is determined by 'color' (currently #1e3a2f)

For a larger or smaller textbox, adjust 'width' (now 240px)

Once this is in your workskin, you can use it within your fic. This has to be done within the HTML editor of the fic, NOT the Rich Text editor.

Find the text that you want to be able to hover over and replace it with the following:

<span class="show">Hover This Word<span class="hide">This is the hidden text that pops up inside the box.</span></span>

Then insert the appropriate information (change 'Hover This Word' to the word you want showing, change the second part to what you want in the box).

Altogether in a paragraph within the HTML editor, it might look like this:

<p>This is regular text, but <span class="show">Hover This Word<span class="hide">This is the hidden text that pops up inside the box.</span></span> the rest of the sentence continues here.</p>

Keep in mind, I am not phenomenal at code. There are as many redundancies as I could manage within this, but occasionally there will be some cutoff at the edges of the page to ensure that there isn't overflow. Ao3 can't dynamically fix this because all screen sizes are different. However, this has all worked pretty well for me thus far.

I hope this is helpful, and that you are able to use it within your own fics! Let me know if you have any more questions as to how it works or how to use it, I would happy to answer to the best of my ability!

CSS Code for Workskin Below (for copy-pasting):

One common usage is to make local anesthetic more effective during surgery, for instance. It's used in a number of injected medications.

Bee stings contain an enzyme very similar to this medication, so sometimes, people with bee allergies have an allergic reaction to hyaluronidase.

This is called cross-reactivity, where your body mistakes something for the thing it's actually allergic to, and has an allergic reaction anyway. For instance, sometimes people with latex allergies also are allergic to bananas and other fruits. They don't actually contain latex, but there are some similar proteins.

Apparently, hyraluronidase used in humans is derived from one of four sources: sheep testicles, cow testicles, cow testicles again, and GMO hamster ovaries.

DESS HOLIDAY KNIGHT #TUFFNESS